MULTIPLEX Ends 12-Year Run, Begins Push For Animated Adaptation

After a 12-year webcomics run satirizing the movie industry (and the movie theater business), Gordon McAlpin’s Multiplex is now staging itself for a prequel – as an animated short, done by McAlpin himself. Multiplex 10 is currently seeking $15,000 on Kickstarter for an animated short intended as a standalone film and a proof of concept for a larger animated series. With little over a week to go, McAlpin’s project has already raised over $13,000 of its goal.

Credit: Gordon McAlpin

“Multiplex (the comic strip) was originally conceived as an animated short, because there's so much you can't really say or do in terms of parodying film as a medium unless you're also working in that medium. Sound, timing, music… you know,” McAlpin, who will direct the pilot, told Newsarama. “At the time - well over twelve years ago - I didn't have the resources to make it happen, so the idea turned into a webcomic instead. But I always wanted to get back to that original premise, and I've been doing a lot of kind of freelance animation for clients in the past year, which got me itching to do it sooner rather than later.”

For Multiplex 10, McAlpin has brought in Dana Luery Shaw, Tom Brazelton, and Joe Dunn as co-writers. The voice cast includes Shaw, Brazelton, as well as Javier Prusky and Chris Rager.

Credit: Gordon McAlpin

“Despite the comic being more and more story-driven, with the characters aging and growing up over the last twelve years, a sort of ‘archetypal’ version of Multiplex has always stuck with me,” the cartoonist continued. “When I do sketches at cons, for instance, I'm always drawing Kurt and Jason in the red vests, as ushers, even though they haven't worn them in the comic for years. Rebooting Multiplex as Multiplex 10 - both as this animated pilot and also in comics from time to time - gives me a way to revisit them in that era forever, without being bogged down by continuity. It lets me leave that original story from Multiplex intact and complete and still play with the characters again any time I want.”

The Multiplex webcomic ended earlier this month, and the third print collection, Muliplex: The Revenge, is scheduled to be released in June.